


They Had the Stars

by reeby10



Category: Star Wars: Thrawn Series - Timothy Zahn (2017)
Genre: Chiss Ascendancy (Star Wars), Eli Vanto centric, Eli Vanto misses Thrawn, Established Relationship, Long-Distance Relationship, M/M, Melancholy, but really only mentioned
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-10-24
Updated: 2019-10-24
Packaged: 2021-01-02 03:56:28
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 378
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21155222
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/reeby10/pseuds/reeby10
Summary: Eli wasn’t sure what he’d expected when he’d agreed to go to the Chiss Ascendency and join the Chiss Defense Fleet.





	They Had the Stars

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Fairleigh](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Fairleigh/gifts).

Eli wasn’t sure what he’d expected when he’d agreed to go to the Chiss Ascendency and join the Chiss Defense Fleet. To be surrounded by beings just like Thrawn, perhaps. That might have been more comfortable, since he’d know how to react, but that certainly wasn’t how it had turned out.

Sure, some of the Chiss he met were like Thrawn, but the majority were not. They were as different to one another as humans were, he found. It was interesting to be around them, and challenging too. And it only made him miss Thrawn more.

That _had_ been the one thing he’d expected when leaving for the Chiss. To miss Thrawn. They’d talked about it at length, both in Thrawn’s office on the Chimera and in his bed, late in the ship’s hours after they’d both been sated. They hadn’t come to a conclusion, really, except that missing one another was an unavoidable side effect of this particular plan.

Eli stared out of the porthole in his quarters, thinking about that last time they’d talked. The plan had been set for some time by then, and he had been equal parts excited and nervous. He hadn’t known yet how painful leaving Thrawn would be, especially with the reminder of seeing his kinspeople every day.

He wondered if Thrawn missed him too. The Chiss would likely never say as much, or show as much, but he was, in a way, even more alone than Eli himself was. Eli had been Thrawn’s closest connection practically since they met, even before they became lovers. His amicable relationship with Karyn wasn’t enough to replace that.

The stars out the porthole were wholly different than the ones Eli saw anywhere else throughout the Empire, but he took a moment to imagine that somewhere out there, Thrawn was looking out into space for him too. They couldn’t see each other, couldn’t talk, didn’t know when or if either of those things could or would happen again. But they had memories and they had trust and they had the stars to look on together.

“I miss you, Thrawn,” Eli whispered to himself, imagining the words crossing over the vast distance of space for his lover to hear. “I hope we can meet again soon.”


End file.
